government affairs openness--“let power run in the sun” 2019/icpem053.pdfgovernment affairs...
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Government Affairs Openness--“Let Power Run in the Sun”
Wei Wang1,*
, Gang Li 1, Hongze Xie
1, Yiming Liu
1 and Mingle Zhou
1
1Qilu University of Technology(Shandong Academy of Sciences), Shandong Computer Science
Center (National Supercomputer Center in Jinan), Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of
Computer Networks, Jinan,China
* corresponding author
Keywords: government affairs, openness, information openness.
Abstract: As the advent of the information age, people have been living in an open era.
This paper demonstrates the meaning of government affairs openness from the perspective
of times development and politics; introduces five characteristics of the government affairs
openness, that is, publicness, democracy, finiteness, authority and advancing with the times;
elaborates on three prominent problems in the current work of government affairs
disclosure, namely, serious formalism, low public participation and lack of supervision
mechanism. Finally, proposed suggestions on how to focus on government affairs openness
to ensure it is conducted in an orderly manner from aspects of strengthening organizational
leadership, accelerate the legislative process and establish and perfect the supervision
system.
1. Introduction
With the improvement of people's material living standard, the public's demand for participating in
the governance of social life and guaranteeing the exercise of their rights is increasingly high, which
puts forward higher requirements for government affairs openness. It is not only the political needs
of the public, but also a political magic weapon to urge government administrative staff to be clean
and efficient.
2. Definition of Government Affairs Openness
At present, the exact meaning of government affairs openness still has disagreements among
academic circle. Some researchers insist that government affairs openness means the openness of
government information, that is the narrow sense of government affairs openness,refers to the information produced or obtained by an administrative organ in the course of performing its duties,
which is recorded and preserved in a certain form and released to the public in a timely and accurate
manner [1]. Others discuss it from a broad sense, they argue that government affairs openness refers
to “The behavior and process of organizations and its staff with administrative duties or public
service functions, such as the party organs, the legislature, the government organs, judicial organs,
organs of people's political consultative conference, democratic parties, social organizations, public
institutions, public service organization, authorization organization, and entrusted organizations,
2019 International Conference on Politics, Economics and Management (ICPEM 2019)
Published by CSP © 2019 the Authors 294
while publicizing there administrative information produced and obtained to natural persons, legal
persons and organizations which have rights in the course of performing administrative duties or
public service functions refer to legal procedures. Beyond that, what is expressly required to be kept
secret by law shall not be made public.” Therefore, government affairs openness in a narrow sense
is conservative, paranoid and static, with emphasis on the results, while in a broad sense it is
inclusive, comprehensive and dynamic, taking into account the whole process of the exercise of
government power.
In fact, no matter from the angle of era development or politics, government affairs openness
should be in a broad sense, that is dynamic, comprehensive and inclusive government affairs
openness. From the perspective of era development, since the reform and opening up, China has
been embracing the world with an open mind. General secretary Xi has also repeatedly stressed that
"the door of China's opening up will only get bigger and bigger", so from this perspective, the
opening of government affairs means more than the disclosure of administrative organs' information.
More subjects must participate in the process of the openness of government affairs, let the
government's rights operate in the sunshine. More people can participate in national governance, so
government affairs openness can become an important supervision means to standardize the
transparent operation of public power. From a political point of view, China is a socialist country,
the essence and core of socialist democracy are that people are the masters of the country. People
have the right to know, right to participate, right to express and right to supervise, which urgently
requires organizations with administrative duties or public service functio ns to make government
affairs more transparent.
3. Characteristics of Government Affairs Openness
Premier Li Keqiang made it clear at the executive meeting on October 31, 2016 that “government
affairs openness is a duty that the government must fulfill in accordance with the law. As long as it
does not involve national security and other matters. government affairs openness is the norm, and
non-openness is the exception!” Government affairs openness has different characteristics in
different countries and regions, in the development of democratic politics in contemporary China.
Government affairs openness has five basic characteristics: publicness, democracy, finiteness,
authority and advancing with the times:
First, publicness. That is, government affairs openness has a clear form carrier can be seen and
understood clearly. With the development of the Internet, there are three main forms of government
affairs openness in China. One is the new media communication in the form of Internet, WeChat,
Weibo, APP, portal and department websites, which has become the main communication tools of
government. The second is government physical tool dissemination, set up standardized and unified
"open wall" and "open column" at the grassroots level, open "office halls" or "government affairs
open centers" in cities and other places where conditions permit, which mainly through the
establishment of electronic displays, microcomputer inquiries, service terminals, hotlines and other
physical tools to dissemination. The third is traditional media, such as television and newspapers,
regularly "government affairs openness" on newspapers, television and radio. By holding press
conferences, broadcasting news broadcast, regularly publishing government affairs journals, let the
public understand and supervise, so as to make the exercise of public power under the sunshine,
using a "visible justice" to ensure the realization of social justice.
Second, democracy. The democratic nature of government affairs openness is determined by the
essence of socialism of our country, the position of the people as masters of the country requires the
people to have a certain right to know and participate in government affairs, government affairs
must be supervised by the people, so that the people can truly participate in the governance of the
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country. Government affairs openness is an important guarantee for the people to be masters of their
own country. At the same time, the breadth and depth of citizens' political participation is also an
important measure to test the development level of a country's democratic politics.
Third, finiteness. The scope of government disclosure is limited, government affairs should be
made public to a certain extent, not to the extent that any affairs should be made public to any
objects. While safeguarding the people's right to know, government affairs must be made public
within a certain legal framework. For content involving the "bottom line" of the law, issues
involving state secrets, national security, trade secrets, and personal privacy are prohibited, such as
military secrets and defense budgets.
Forth, authority. The implementation subject of government affairs openness is governments and
their departments at all levels, it must be a legally established administrative organ recognized by
the society, its object orientation is mainly the general public, this requires that it must be
authoritative and irreplaceable. The public content of government affairs also must be practical and
realistic, must have the characteristics of authority, authenticity, reliability.
Fifth, advancing with the times. Judging from the long history, government affairs openness
advancing with the times, different contents should be selected and published in different forms
during different periods. Government affairs openness is constantly changing in the process of
social development and needs to be constantly developed and improved in practice, it must keep
improving according to different requirements of reality with the progress of the times. With the
development of society, the form, carrier and content of government affairs openness are also
changing, for example, with the arrival of the information age, the way of government affairs
openness must be gradually made public on the Internet. With the continuous opening up of our
country, some aspects of government affairs openness must be made public across national
boundaries.
4. Prominent Problems Facing with Government Affairs Openness
Since the promulgation of “Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the disclosure of
government information”, China has made steady progress in making government affairs more open.
Government work has become more transparent, and the people's sense of participation and gain
has been strengthened. As a whole, China has entered a stage of steady development. In the process
of promote government affairs openness, some prominent problems have also been exposed, which
have become a stumbling block to the construction of "sunshine project".
4.1. Serious Formalism
Formalism is mainly manifested in the following two aspects. First of all, at present, various
provinces and cities have generally established the assessment mechanism for government affairs
openness. Some provinces and cities have incorporated the assessment results into the
comprehensive assessment indicators for economic and social development. At the same time, in
order to cope with the assessment, while some provinces and cities mechanically copied the
assessment indicators to deal with the assessment results but ignored the essence of government
affairs openness. Secondly, the quality of the content of government affairs openness is generally
not high, the content is too simple and rough, the information is too narrow and outdated, not very
timely, and also the exam-taking psychology is serious. It cannot start from the actual situation of
the local region to reflect the characteristics of its government affairs openness.
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4.2. Low Public Participation
Government affairs openness is the main way for the openness and transparency of government
work, participation in national governance is no longer simply a matter between government
managers, but also requires the participation of the working people. Without public participation
government affairs openness is like a source without water and a tree without roots, all the people
have the right to know and the right to participate. Government affairs openness is an effective
system and a powerful way to realize citizens' rights of information, participation, expression and
supervision. At present, public participation in government affairs openness is low, the open
channels according to the application are not smooth enough in some areas, the forms and carriers
of information disclosure are relatively single, Weibo and WeChat of government are not updated
in a timely manner, public awareness of access to public information is low [2]. Only by let the
people participate in the governance of the country and society, can the value of government affairs
openness be really reflected.
4.3. The Disappearance of the Supervisory Mechanism
Since the implementation of “Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the disclosure of
government information” on May 1, 2008, local governments at all levels could constantly improve
the system of openness in government affairs, clearly stipulate the subject, content, form, procedure,
supervision and assessment method of government affairs openness, constantly deepen government
affairs openness, government affairs service center also develops rapidly. But the government did
not make clear the accountability mechanism of government affairs openness, in some local
governments, the open supervision mechanism for government affairs is not sound, corresponding
punishment measures are lacking, and the administrative accountability system has not been
implemented or is not in place. Governments at all levels do not pay enough attention to
government affairs openness, lack of supervision and restriction mechanism on government affairs
openness, such as omission and misbehavior, and the evaluation and assessment system of
government affairs openness is not sound, so it is difficult for ‘government affairs openness’ to play
an effective role [3].
5. Promotion Strategy of Government Affairs Openness
5.1. Strengthen Organizational Leadership and Actively Promote Government Affairs
Openness
Organizational leadership is the key element of government affairs openness, the orderly
development of government affairs disclosure cannot be achieved without organizational leadership.
We should further improve the ideological of local government leaders, constantly study the spirit
of relevant documents, only by strengthening the thought of leadership can we further enhance the
breadth and depth of the work of government affairs openness. It is necessary to further improve the
procedures for government affairs openness, make clear the person in charge of government affairs
openness in each region. We should also strengthen the propaganda, to raise the public awareness of
obtaining public information of government affairs, make good use of the "public resources" of
government affairs openness. At the same time, government affairs openness also promotes the
clean and efficient administration of administrative staff. Governments at all levels must work
around the key and difficult point of government affairs openness, actively mobilize relevant
personnel to proactive disclosure and full interpretation of matters and policies related to people's
livelihood emphatically, especially sensitive information for the public in the financial sector should
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be made public in a timely manner, ensure that government information is ‘transparent and
transparent’. Actively promote government affairs disclosure.
5.2. Accelerate the Legislative Process on Government Affairs Openness to Further Enhance
its Authority
China's current "regulations of the People's Republic of China on government information
disclosure" only belongs to the scope of administrative regulations, the work of government affairs
openness has not yet been fully elevated to the level of legislation, its status not prominent enough
in China's legal norms system, the law of opening government meetings, the law of opening
information of public organs and the law of government in the sunshine in western countries has
important reference significance for China's government affairs openness[4]. In fact, government
affairs openness conflicts with the interests of administrative staff, only when government affairs
openness rises to the level of legislation, can the authority of the work of government affairs
openness be further enhanced [5]. Only with a sound system of government affairs openness and a
sound guarantee mechanism of government affairs openness can a benign interaction be formed
between the government and the public, and a dynamic mechanism is formed for mutual promotion
between the two sides, so as to promote the healthy development of government affairs openness.
5.3. Establishing and Perfecting the Supervisory Mechanism to Ensure Government Affairs
Openness Conducted in an Orderly Manner
Look from abroad, the federal government of Canada has established the "government information
disclosure and privacy protection committee" to supervise the government information disclosure
work as a third party, which is independent from the government operation, the British government
information office was set up in 2005 to create an independent monitoring body and government
information utilization agency [6]. In China, provinces, cities and regions have gradually introduced
third-party evaluation agencies as a powerful measure to monitor and evaluate the work of
government affairs openness. All localities should link the assessment results of government affairs
openness to the assessment and appointment of cadres, and accept the supervision of the people and
social media. At the same time, we should improve the accountability system of government affairs
openness, administrative staff who fail to disclose information and fulfill their statutory duties will
be held accountable. Therefore, to establish and improve the supervision system is a strong
guarantee for the orderly development of government affairs openness in various regions.
To sum up, in order to make the work of government affairs openness orderly and efficiently, we
can proceed from three aspects: strengthening the leadership of the organization, speeding up the
legislative process and establishing and perfecting the supervision mechanism. In addition, we
should also proceed with standardizing the work of government affairs openness [7], broaden the
channels of government affairs openness and establish a security mechanism, etc. Make government
affairs openness effectively, so as to build a service-oriented government.
Conflicts of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions for
improving the presentation of this paper. This paper is one of the phased achievements of the
Shandong Key Research and Development Program “Research and Application of the Third
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Evaluation Index System of Shandong Province's Government Openness” (2018GSF122001) and
the National Key research and development Program “Research on Standardization of
Administrative Licensing and Measurement Technology” (2017YFF0207702) .
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